Analyzing the Avicennian Viewpoint about the First Formed Organ (Primary Organ) in Human Body

The issue of the first formed organ in the human body has been considered by scholars for a long time, especially in the fields of philosophy and medicine. Philosophers have approached this issue from the perspective that they saw it as a prelude to solving the long-standing problem of the relationship between the soul and the body. The entry of physicians into this discussion is mostly for a better understanding of the evolutionary process of the human body. Avicenna as a philosopher and a competent physician, is one of the few figures who has comprehensively discussed this issue in his works from both aspects. In the history of thought before Avicenna, we encounter three different views about the first formed organ in the human body, which has respectively considered the heart, brain and liver as the first formed organ or the primary organ in the body. Avicenna, while rejecting the last two views in his works, finally accepts the first view and introduces the heart as the first formed organ in the body. He considers heart as the place for the vital spirit that this vital spirit in its turn is the ground for the faculties of human soul. He uses both empirical evidences based on ancient medicine and rational arguments to prove his claim.